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Astronauts who live for long periods in space lose the mass and density of their bone structure.
Once back on Earth, astronauts’ bones take a long time, even more than a year, to return to normal, and this does not always happen completely.
Top Albania Radio writes that studies conducted on this topic in anticipation of future long trips in space have shown that astronauts lose one to 2% of their bone density in the last month in the absence of gravity.
The latest study was the most detailed and looked at the wrists and ankles of 17 astronauts before, during and after a long stay on the International Space Station. Steven Boyd from Canada’s University of Calgary and director of the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health explained that:
The loss of bone density of the astronauts was equal to what they would have recorded on our planet in several decades of life.
For nine astronauts, tibial density had not yet returned to the “original” value after a year on Earth. Furthermore, it has been shown that the longer the stay in space, the longer the period required to return to near normality.
The more time you spend in space, the more bone you lose. This is worrying when we think about the astronauts who will travel to Mars, who will have to plan for years in zero gravity.
At the moment, it is not yet clear whether the bone density of astronauts continues to decrease indefinitely as the stay in space is prolonged.
It is possible that at some point the phenomenon will stop, because it is unthinkable that it will continue to the point where the bones “disappear” completely.
According to Guillemette Gauquelin-Koch, head of medical research at the French space agency CNES, the weightlessness experienced in space is comparable to the most drastic physical inactivity there is.
Even doing physical activity for two hours a day, as astronauts do on the ISS, is like staying in bed for the remaining 22 hours.
A 2020 study showed that for a three-year spaceflight to Mars, 33% of the astronauts who made it would be at risk of osteoporosis. Gauquelin-Koch points out that after an eight-month journey to Mars it will not be easy to set foot on the Martian terrain because the astronauts will have weakened.
The new study published in ‘Scientific Reports’ has also shown how spaceflight not only changes bone density, but also changes bone structure.
To clarify the concept, Boyd assimilated the bones to the metal parts of the Eiffel Tower’s structure. Staying in space for a long time causes the complete loss of some of these “metal parts”, which will never be recovered.
In other words, after returning to Earth, the density is regained in what is left, but the lost parts are permanently lost.
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